7 story office bldg uneven heat

Paul_87

Way too high. Where are you located?

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ronb

7 story office bldg uneven heat steam 2 pipe with receiver

I just took over maintenance contract on old office bldg.there is 2 boilers and 2 zones north 7 stories and south seven stories.Currently both actuated zone globe valves cannot be opened at once or steam will not go past 3rd floor.In order for the system to function there is a timer running at 1/2 hour intervals opening and closing each valve so only one is open at any given time.there is literly no temp control between floors.All the traps are maintained and seem to be working.the system is set for 7 psi steam and maintains it.I need to know if there is any way to better control temps.I tried closing off valves part way on lower levels and the radiator just fill with condensate......need help please...ron

ronb

7 story office bldg uneven heat steam 2 pipe with receiver

I just took over maintenance contract on old office bldg.there is 2 boilers and 2 zones north 7 stories and south seven stories.Currently both actuated zone globe valves cannot be opened at once or steam will not go past 3rd floor.In order for the system to function there is a timer running at 1/2 hour intervals opening and closing each valve so only one is open at any given time.there is literly no temp control between floors.All the traps are maintained and seem to be working.the system is set for 7 psi steam and maintains it.I need to know if there is any way to better control temps.I tried closing off valves part way on lower levels and the radiator just fill with condensate......need help please...ron

Steamhead (in transit)

Start with the basics

How much radiation does the system have?

How does this compare to the boilers' capacities?

How does air get out of the system?

What pressure is shown when the zone valves open?

and last but not least.....

Where is this building located?

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nicholas bonham-carter

wasting fuel

how many other buildings out there are wasting fuel because of failure to stick to the original intentions of "the dead men".not surprising that 40% of our fuel goes up the chimney!
how much trouble to go to with a timer to switch zones off and on.much easier maybe simply to make them work properly to begin with instead of installing a band-aid.
this setup may be a candidate for a hi-lo dual boiler set up but only after a good tune-up.

Steamhead (in transit)

We're working on one now

that was maintaining 6 PSI all the time. When a zone valve opened the pressure would drop and slowly rise again since the air venting was restricted. Each zone had a Tekmar 269 but no one had hooked them up to the burners. That was one of the first things we fixed.

The boilers are 175-hp Federal scotch-marine, with tankless coils and PowerFlame full-modulation gas burners (3:1 turndown). Only one boiler is needed at a time. The system is a Webster that has been knuckleheaded.

We also found the burners on both boilers were horribly out of tune. Way too much air on low-fire and not enough on high-fire, and high CO all around. One of the boilers had some soot in it- from burning gas! I suppose none of the numerous contractors that worked on them prior to us had ever heard of a digital combustion analyzer. If you don't have one of these, get one now and learn how to use it. You can't do your job properly without it.

We're now getting rid of the 2-inch master trap in the return line at the boiler-feed tank, and installing a proper air vent rise-and-drop line on the return line in its original size- 4-inch! This was needed since the vent on the tank is only 2-inch. Then we'll go after the bad traps that I'm sure we will find.

We only started working on this one in April, so we don't have fuel-consumption numbers yet. But I expect they'll save big.

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